 a campus has walked us through what the senses experience and hell, which is quite terrifying. It is Conor and very happy to have now escaped hell and to move to a much, much better place. Yeah, absolutely. So in heaven, he, well, first of all, there's a really cool passage here. He talks about the pearly gate. So he's just kind of starting as we walk into heaven. And before we experience the sensory situation of heaven, he talks about the great pearl. And so tell us about that. Indeed. And so this is actually something which, which comes from sacred scripture from the book of revelations in which there's a detailed description of the celestial Jerusalem. And I guess the pearly gates is an expression which has become almost a bit of a cliche. And we we say pearly gates without thinking about what we really mean. But if we go back and look at the book of revelation, it tells us that each of these gates is carved from a single massive pearl. And if you just reflect for a moment, you know, the biggest pearl I've seen is probably, I don't know, about an inch or so in diameter. This is something which is truly mind blowing. And on top of that, the cities of the streets of the city are paved with gold, with pure gold, and lined with gemstones. I mean, this is completely awesome when you stop and try to imagine it for a few moments. You know, I can't even fathom what it would be like to live in a place like that, but it would certainly be a magnificent experience. He he talks about going into the senses, he says, and that glorious gleaming metropolis shall be adorned and surrounded by verdant and gorgeous fields filled with multicolored flowers of incomparable and entrancing beauty. And in that city, the tranquil warmth and gentle, gentle light of spring shall prevail eternally, and the air will be surfaced with fragrant perfumes, offering ever new and intoxicating delights. And I had written in my notes, and no allergies, because I'm allergic to everything he just said. You know, kind of that's right. Well, allergies, weaknesses, disease, all of this are actually manifestations of the lasting effect of original sin. And of course, that will be completely taken away. So not only will there be no tears or no mourning, but there will be no colds, no coughs, no flu, I mean, will be completely immortal with this fullness of life, a life which is so full that it can't be impaired by anything at all, not even allergies. And, you know, and he says that he goes on to say about the vividness of the reality will surpass that of our present life. So our senses at the moment are all limited. We will have perfect senses so that the glories which we perceive, the beauties which we perceive in this world right now, we perceive only through our very imperfect senses. So we get only to see them as if through a glass and darkly. But there it will be like, compared to this reality, this reality will be like looking at something in black and white compared to high dimension, full color reality, which will be what's waiting us in the next world where our senses will be perfected. That's beautiful. In a subsequent podcast, we're going to talk about Saint Anselm and his book on the glories of heaven, where we're going to talk in detail about the glorified body and what that's like, you know, and that kind of this is just reminding me of that. So I look forward to that conversation. But in the next part of this book, you know, why don't you just say a little bit of what a chemist talks about with the beatific vision. So it's one thing to smell beautiful flowers and to see an awesome pearly gate. Yeah. But he definitely says all of that's just the prelude to the actual beatific vision. So what does a chemist say about that? Beatific vision is a very important thing in the Christian imagining the Christian conception of heaven, of paradise. It will be the perfect vision, the perfect comprehension and understanding of the glorious and holy trinity. And you know, we think about the trinity now and it's a very beautiful thing, this three-ness yet oneness. But what we think about now is only really the definition of it in words, not the reality itself, this dynamic interchange of love. And he says, this holy trinity, mysterious and beyond nor conception is the perfect archetype and ultimate epitome of all that is beautiful, all that is good, all that is delightful. In beholding this glorious trinity, you will know all there is to know, and you shall possess all your heart desires, rather even more than your heart desires and could ever desire even more than your mind could ever conceive. So we're going to be united with the beatitude, the blessedness, the joy of God himself, which is truly an awe-inspiring thought. You think about those times in this life when we felt most happy, most content, most joyful, and that will be just the smallest fragment of what this fullness of eternal joy will be like in the union with God. And he concludes this chapter, actually with a quote, I wasn't even intending it, but I forgot that he concludes this chapter with a quote from Saint Anselm, we're going to talk about it another time. And it says this, as Saint Anselm has said, whatever you wish for, you shall immediately have, and whatever you do not wish for will never befall you. And what I just kind of made a note to that, that reminds me of something that Saint Augustine said, and this is a significant paraphrasing I think, but it goes something like this, love God and then do what you want. And with the idea being, you know, particularly in heaven, since we're talking about the joys of heaven, you only want what is good, and so you get to do whatever you want. And a saint here on earth in an imperfect way gets to do what they want. I think that's why Augustine said love God then do what you want. He's not saying, oh, go just have a good time. He's not saying that, but when you love God, your desires are purified. And so your will is only desiring to do his will. So you, in a sense, you have total freedom then, because you get to do exactly what you want, because you only want the good. And he finishes this chapter with that quote from Saint Anselm, and I think it's just driving point to home to me that in heaven, there's total freedom. You get what you want. Exactly. Exactly. And some people, you know, when they think about heaven, they wonder, is it just like a big static, you know, being frozen in eternity? But no, it's not like that at all, that we continue to have desires and wishes and so forth, but they're instantly fulfilled. And we can do this with perfect freedom, because everything which impairs our current will, which makes us sometimes will for the wrong thing, will be completely removed. So our will will be in perfect unity with that of God. And this gives us perfect freedom. It also gives us complete omnipotence, because just as the will of God is omnipotent, so our will, which will accord with his perfectly, and with the United Will of all the angels and saints will be joined also in this splendid omnipotence. And so it's not this static state, but rather a state of going from one glory to another. And I think one of the things which Gregory of Nyssa talks about in heaven is that it's not, we don't receive everything, but it's a continual and infinite progression from one state of bliss to an even greater one. Yeah, I'm going to mention this. I don't think this is a digression, but I read somewhere that human nature is capable of doing anything with the grace of God, except for two things. One, human nature can never create out of nothing. Only divine nature can do that. And two, human nature could never annihilate something out of existence. Only God can do that. But with God's grace, human nature is able to do anything else. We'd be able to move planets. We'd be able to give sight to the blind. We can do these amazing things, and so much of the redemption of mankind was done through the human nature of Christ, the divine person working through the human nature of Christ. Redemption was in a sense an act of man done by a divine person, but done through human nature. So I just find that interesting that heaven, I kind of feel that this conversation about heaven is showing that we're going to, talking about participating in God's omnipotence. His all knowing, his all power, we're going to have tremendous abilities to, Anselm talks about, which we'll get into later, being able to, to the velocity, being able to move faster than the speed of light, you know, just pop around the universe at unimaginable speeds. So our nature of humanity is capable of that with the grace of God and fusing it with his power and his knowledge. Does that make sense to you? Yeah, it makes, it makes a lot of sense, you know, and the human being is the, is the big which is going to be redeemed when we're in heaven will still be fully human. And the human being now is limited only by the impairments of sin, by the division of our, our souls from the will of God. So we substantially unite our wills with God during this life. I mean, because most people basically want what is good. But we never do this perfectly. We see in the saints and in the person of Jesus Christ, people who unite their souls, their will with the will of God. And Christ says if our faith is strong enough, we'll be able to move mountains. Yeah, exactly. Like that's, you got, you know, this is making Superman and Batman look pathetic, right? I mean, you know, Marvel heroes have nothing on human beings infused by the power of God. You did, you did.